After a disappointing return to St. James’ Park last weekend for Alan Pardew, Crystal Palace will play their last home game of 2015-16 against Stoke City on Saturday night.
The Eagles went out against Newcastle with what seemed like a very negative attitude towards the game, looking to waste time wherever possible. It went against the way that they have played for much of the season and once they fell behind, they struggled to get back into the game.
Stoke are traveling to Selhurst Park after a 1-1 draw at home against Sunderland. Despite struggling to create chances, the Black Cats converted a stoppage time penalty which kept their chances of survival alive with the 1-1 draw. The Potters will be trying to bounce back from what could be seen as a disappointing result at home.
A win for Pardew’s men would see them move further away from the relegation zone and secure their safety, while for Stoke it would help them remain in the top 10.
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Key Battle – Palace wingers vs Stoke fullbacks
If Crystal Palace move back to playing to the strengths that for a large part has worked this season, it will be the wingers in Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha that will need to controlled. It had been the most successful factor for Pardew in terms of team strategy, up until Bolasie got injured the last time they played Stoke and that is when the season went to the wayside.
In the meeting earlier this season it was largely down to the success of Zaha, who was man of the match, and Bolasie, because the fullbacks in Glen Johnson and Erik Pieters were just unable to get on top of them. It has been shown throughout the season that if Zaha can be nullified he will drop his head and that will help reduce Palace’s go forward.
Team News
Crystal Palace will be hoping that Zaha will make his expected return this weekend so that they can go into the game that could secure their survival with a full strength team.
Stoke are also in a similar position with key forward Marko Arnautovic, their goal scorer from last weekend and top scorer this year, doubtful to overcome a thigh injury. But like Zaha, he should start the game. There is an outside chance that they will be able to bring in goalkeeper Shay Given after recovering from a groin injury.
Head-to-head
In five previous meetings in the Premier League, Crystal Palace have the advantage with three wins compared to the Potters’ one, with one game ending in a draw. At Selhurst Park there has been one win for the Eagles.
Previous Meeting
Palace won their last game in the league for over two months thanks to Connor Wickham’s first club goal, when he converted a penalty before Bojan Krkic also scored from the spot. It was an 88th minute goal from Lee Chung-Yong that secured a 2-1 win for Pardew’s side
Prediction
With both teams wanting to strike back from disappointing results last weekend they will be looking to get the win. Working in Stoke’s favour though is that the Eagles’ home record is something that has let them down this year, while Mark Hughes’ side have been fairly successful away from home.
Crystal Palace 1 Stoke City 2
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